TUR/CHN – Turkey brush aside China to maintain perfect record

ANKARA (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Turkey cruised to an 87-40 win over China to finish Group C undefeated (5-0) and set up an Eight-Final against New Zealand.

China – who were assured of a place in the next round where they will face Lithuania after Ivory Coast beat Puerto Rico 88-79 – used this game to rest their star players and starters allowing for the bench players to get some extensive playing time.

Turkey had a similar approach, benching four of their five starters with the exception of Hedo Turkoglu who played 10 minutes.

Yi Jianlian, sitting on the bench in street clothes, watched as his team trailed 15-6 at the end of the first quarter. Head coach Bob Donewald Jr revealed afterwards that an MRI would be needed to see the extent of an Achilles injury to his star player.

The second period was not much better for China as Oguz Savas and Omer Asik made their presence felt down low and helped the hosts take a commanding 39-13 lead at the break.

Things weren’t much different in the second half as the hosts extended their advantage to 66-25 as they headed into the fourth quarter and the young Chinese got some offense going in that period.

China came into the game knowing their place in Istanbul was secure after Ivory Coast failed to win by the 12-point margin they required to edge the Chinese out in the tiebreak.

Quotes:

Bogdan Tanjevic (Turkey head coach): “Thank you to the city of Ankara for the hospitality. I’m very happy for the team to have played so well here. We approached this game with great respect for our opponents and did not underestimate them. We played hard

Savas Oguz (Turkey forward/centre): “This was a comfortable win. Our first place was guaranteed. However we have ensured that we keep our winning ways. We did what we are supposed to do and we should look to continue to play this way.”

Bob Donewald Jr (China head coach): “Turkey was very good. Congratulations to them for winning the pool. Thanks to Ankara for its hospitality. Today we played the young guys and it will be an experience they will never forget. They made a lot of mistakes but two or three years from now they can look back on it as a great lesson.”

Sun Yue (China forward): “This was a tough game, we played a lot of our young players. I was the oldest out there. I think they got a good experience. We look forward to the next round.”

FIBA